Re: [WAI-IG] Date & number format

> > Yes, I mustn't have been making myself clear when I said that you should
> use 
> > the full month name if you can.
> > It's only when a client is stupid enough to insist on a short date (for
> reasons 
> > I never understand but figure must have something to do with the physical
> size 
> 
>   That, I would hope, is when you point out to said client that the
>   system isn't going to be very userfriendly, that the size of the
>   screen is an unknown factor, and that accessibility actually matters.

Sometimes with success, sometimes without.

>   Not, but the format
> 
>     "xx monthname year-with-four-digits"
> 
>   work in all contexts; written - of course - fully and in the same
>   natural language as the document itself.

Yes, that's why that was the suggestion I made to begin with, although I 
wouldn't scream at the thought of month dd yyyy.

>   If you then want to use the ISO format internally, fine.

And of course the only time HTML uses dates internally they must be in ISO 
format. If designing a human-readable but machine targetted system I'd strongly 
recommend ISO, but that's even more off-topic than we already are.

 However, if
>   you MUST use an abbreviated, locale-dependent, format towards the end
>   user, then I still suggest dd-mm-yyyy - and, of course, always include
>   that, as the OP had done.

If I MUST use and abbreviated locale-dependent format, I'll use which locale I 
MUST use.
If I MUST use an abbreviated format I'd use the only locale-independent format 
that's available.

Funnily I've been asked by Irish clients (dd/mm/yyyy is the convention here) to 
use mm/dd/yyyy. They'd rather think mm/dd/yyyy will bring in more dollars than 
dd/mm/yyyy will euros and pounds.

--
Jon Hanna                   | Toys and books
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Received on Friday, 5 December 2003 08:39:03 UTC